


It’s Not Fair (How Much I Love You)

by Celyan



Category: London Spy
Genre: Cats, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27471067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celyan/pseuds/Celyan
Summary: Danny has always wanted a cat.
Relationships: Danny Holt & Scottie, Danny Holt/Alex Turner
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16
Collections: Lap's Birthday Lovefest





	It’s Not Fair (How Much I Love You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lapsang_and_earlgrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lapsang_and_earlgrey/gifts).



> First of all, happy birthday Lap! 🎂🥂✨I hope you’re having a wonderful birthday filled with wonderful surprises and sweet treats. 💖
> 
> This is my very first London Spy fic ever, and to say that I’d be nervous would be very much true. 😂 It was supposed to be something else entirely, but then Danny told me that you know what, no, we’re doing it like this instead. And who was I to tell him no? Perhaps next time I’ll write the fic that I was meant to write now. Until then, well, there’s this one. 🐈
> 
> Thanks to SandyWormbook for the beta.

The first time Danny actively decides that he would very much like to have a cat as a pet, he’s visiting his friend Thomas, whose family has recently acquired a pair of kittens. Thomas has been telling him all about the cuteness of the two furry creatures small enough to fit into his cupped palms, their high-pitched meows, and the way the black one likes to climb up to his shoulders and sit there, gazing at his kingdom like a tiny and benevolent but highly excitable ruler while his sister sleeps in the lap of Thomas’s older sister; it’s only natural that Danny would like to see it all with his own eyes, and Thomas happily invites him over after the smallest of hints. 

Danny catches his first glimpse of the kittens, asleep and curled around one another in Thomas’s bed, and immediately falls in love. He gets hearts in his eyes as soon as the black kitten, who’s the more curious one according to Thomas, wakes up yawning widely, and curiously makes his way over to where Danny sits patiently waiting. The kitten sniffs at his fingers and makes a little trilling sound, then jumps into his lap and makes himself comfortable there, purring while nudging at Danny’s fingers to get pets. Danny obliges, gently running his fingers through the soft fur, and he can’t stop himself from smiling widely at Thomas who gives him a thumbs up. 

It’s Danny’s first experience of falling in love at first sight, and sets a comfortable precedent for the future—not that he’s aware of it yet. He spends several happy hours just playing with the kittens and chatting with Thomas and when he gets home he tells his mother all about it. 

He also asks for a kitten of his own. Unsurprisingly, his mother sighs and tells him no, but Danny is nothing if not tenacious, and he figures that if he’ll just keep on asking and trying his best to prove his parents that he’ll be able to take care of a kitten by himself, his parents are eventually bound to see reason. 

(They don’t, but it’s certainly not due to lack of trying on Danny’s part, which contributes to  _ both _ his becoming the perfectly behaved son his father always speaks about when he’s younger  _ and _ the quickly increasing trouble he has with his parents when he’s older and before he finally leaves home for good.) 

*

Danny doesn’t get a cat when he moves out on his own, much to his great disappointment, but it’s less to do with his desire to get one and more with him not having enough money to support both himself and a pet. 

Then, when he has to share a living space with flatmates, it’s mainly because the landlord’s rules clearly state no pets on the premises. With no choice in the matter, he takes to watching cat videos on Youtube in his spare time, later moving to Instagram and following all the cat accounts that he finds there. It’s a poor substitute but it’s also better than nothing, and he doesn’t have a friend like Thomas to visit and get his cat fix.

When he finds out about the cat shelters all over London, Danny immediately starts volunteering at the closest one to where he lives. He cannot foster any of the cats, but he does anything and everything else he can to help the people running the shelter, and he’s never happier than when a formerly shy or distrustful cat finally allows him to touch it. 

He doesn’t tell Scottie about his volunteering until a few years into their friendship because, deep down, he fears that Scottie might share his parents’ view on cats, so he’s pleasantly surprised when all Scottie does is smile fondly and tell him that he’s happy that Danny has something in his life that brings him joy. 

And it  _ does _ bring him joy, Danny thinks later when he’s already in bed and under the covers, the steady hum of London traffic filtering through his barely opened window a pleasant enough background noise to his sleepy thoughts; it’s no doubt the main reason why he is where he is right now, despite all the bad things that have happened to him. 

The next time Danny meets Scottie outside of the clubs they both frequent, his friend gives him a small plush toy kitten, black as the night itself and possessing the same golden eyes Danny remembers Thomas’s black kitten had. 

“Something to watch over your sleep,” Scottie only says, and Danny hugs him tight in lieu of any words that would only fail to convey what he wishes to express. 

Scottie hugs him back gently and then offers him more tea, skillfully guiding the conversation past what might have become a moment for Danny to shed tears over a past he doesn’t want to cry all over again. 

When he goes to sleep that night—and every night after—Danny holds the toy kitten close to his heart and has a nightmare-free sleep for the first time in weeks, if not months. 

*

Danny tells Alex about volunteering at the shelter as well as his deep love for felines both domestic and wild when he tells him about everything else about himself. 

When he introduces the toy kitten he’s taken to calling Remi and shows him its place on his pillow, Alex smiles at him, soft and sweet, and runs his fingers through its silky fur. After, he brings the fingers up to Danny’s hair, his touch ever so gentle, and tells him that he’s never heard of anything so adorable. 

Then he kisses Danny on the lips, and the kiss is the sweetest they’ve ever shared. 

Danny clings onto that memory with claws sharper than those of a feral cat when everything around him turns to chaos, when his former happiness is but a painful memory, and when he ends up losing both his love and his best friend to forces so very outside of his control. 

He still sleeps with his little Remi close to his heart, but his rest is rarely peaceful anymore. 

*

It takes him a few years, but finally Danny gets a cat of his own. 

The kitten in Alex’s arms is black and has familiar golden eyes and looks at him with a mix of inquisitiveness and mischief, and Danny falls instantly, happily in love once more. 

“We can call him Remi if you’d like,” Alex offers shyly. He’s freshly returned from America and Danny has only seen him briefly before he’d told him that he had an errand to run and that he’ll be back before Danny even notices that he’s gone (which was simply not true and Danny has more or less been reduced to counting seconds while he’d waited to see his long lost love again), and he looks at Danny like he’s never seen anything as beautiful as him in his life, the kitten he’s holding included. 

Danny lets out an incoherent sound of delight and all but runs straight into Alex’s arms. He gently runs his fingers through the kitten’s silky fur, getting a tiny meow and a lick of a scratchy tongue as his reward, and feels like his heart might just burst, so full of feeling as it is. 

“He’s so adorable,” Danny says and looks into his boyfriend’s eyes; Alex wraps his free arm around him and, mindful of the kitten, pulls him closer. 

“I love him, and I love you,” Danny continues, surer than he’s ever been in his life, and kisses Alex on the lips. It’s a sweet kiss, a gentle kiss, and it gets even sweeter when the kitten decides that he wants his share of the affection too and pokes them on the jaw with his cold nose. 


End file.
